


wolves.

by guti



Category: Football RPF
Genre: AS Roma - Freeform, M/M, Manchester City
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-05-04 17:38:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14598231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guti/pseuds/guti
Summary: Once or twice, early on, he’d wake up beside Edin and wonder what the hell they were doing, wonder how they’d ended up stuck on each other, in something a lot like love might be, considering who they were and where they came from.





	wolves.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [olandesevolante](https://archiveofourown.org/users/olandesevolante/gifts).



Edin’s eyes were hazel. Sometimes they almost looked green, other times they nearly reached into the realm of blue. Aleks noticed that peculiar feature during one of their earliest conversations on the training pitch. Edin was shivering in the rain, an embroidered City beanie pulled down covering his eyebrows. He looked completely ridiculous, and Aleks told him so, with the vaguest trace of a smile in his eyes, so Edin knew he was only teasing.

Edin laughed in response, reaching over to pull Aleks’ own hat down over his eyes. “Funny, Ale. It’s a very good look on you.”

Edin trotted away, laughing still as he meandered toward Kun. Momentarily out of sorts, Aleks took that opportunity to nutmeg him.

—

Edin kissed him first. Not because Aleks was afraid to or anything, and certainly not from lack of desire. Rather Edin always possessed a self-assuredness that led him to commit to things and act on instinct in a manner all his own. They were in the showers. Everyone else had already gone and they were alone, lost in one of their regular, endless conversations about anything, everything, and nothing at all. 

Aleks hadn’t even noticed their teammates had all gone after training. He may have been too busy covertly watching Edin strip down to nothing, or perhaps it was something else entirely. Regardless, he was distracted, and before he could react in any way, Edin’s lips were pressed against his and his back was pinned against the slick tile of the communal shower.

As they parted, Edin mumbled something against his mouth, and it took Aleks a moment to realize he wasn’t speaking English anymore. 

“What?” Aleks asked him, breathless and desperate to switch back to thinking in his mother tongue.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time.” Edin said again, eyes meeting Aleks’ before he went in for another kiss.

— 

After the next practice, Aleks kissed Edin. 

And he kissed him again, the next time Edin scored.

—

Once or twice, early on, he’d wake up beside Edin and wonder what the hell they were doing, wonder how they’d ended up stuck on each other, in something a lot like love might be, considering who they were and where they came from. There were a few nights, in the beginning, when they were both lying in bed, sweat cooling their skin, room far too chilly for those autumn Manchester nights, when he found his mind wandering, and he couldn’t help but question what they were doing, and why. 

They were born in the same country. They spoke the same language. They played for the same club. They had the same friends, the same interests, the same hopes and aspirations and dreams. They had nearly everything in common. Just about. Almost.

And yet…

Some nights, it was hard to wrap his mind around the fact that he’d fallen for Edin Džeko the first moment that they met, from the second their eyes met and Edin cracked that funny, toothy smile of his. 

Other nights, it was less so.

“Ale, stop thinking so much,” Edin said to him once, propped up on his elbow, eyes flashing mischievously. They were beside each other in Aleks’ bed, both of them looking rather worse for wear, run down, tired. 

“What are you on about?” Aleks did not turn to face him, instead opting to watch Edin from the corner of his eye as best as he could.

“I can see the gears turning in there.” Edin gestured toward Aleks’ head. “You’re hung up on something. Stop it.”

Maybe he was, maybe Edin was right. Aleks sniffed. Of course Edin was right. Edin was usually right.

Aleks closed his eyes only to open them again as he felt Edin’s hand drifting over his hip, long fingers drumming softly on his bare stomach.

“Whatever it is that’s on your mind, it doesn’t matter,” Edin said. “Just be here now. Stay here with me. Whatever else there is will be waiting tomorrow. That’s all you’ve got to worry about.”

It was reassuring, and for the moment it was easy enough to comply with Edin’s wishes and fall asleep next to him with their limbs twisted together. It was all too easy to forget about politics and religion and football and just hold onto him.

—

Things really did feel magical sometimes, and not just in those private moments where they spent far too much time just staring at each other like a pair of lovesick idiots. Edin was spectacular in general. Aleks may have been a little bit biased, sure, but there was no denying just how special he was. Talent aside, he was engaging and charming, good looking, and for some fucking reason whenever he so much as smiled, Aleks felt like his knees might give out from under him. It was absolutely pathetic, but dammit if he wasn’t over the moon.

“Imagine,” he’d said once, standing at his locker, intently watching Edin pull off his jersey and drop it onto the seat beside him. “We could be like this forever.”

Edin looked over to him, his teeth grazing over his lower lip in that careless way that always managed to drive Aleks mad. 

“Like how?” He asked. Aleks wasn’t sure if he was being obtuse or if it was some sort of tease meant to get a rise out of him. Then again, knowing Edin, it was probably a combination of both. Edin sank into his seat and started unlacing his boots, looking across at Aleks through lowered eyelashes.

“Like how we are now.” Aleks said. “Here. Now.”

He meant in Manchester. He meant together. He meant… a lot of different things, really, all of them too stupid and sentimental to say out loud. 

“Ale,” Edin said then, standing up straight so that he seemed to loom over Aleks, “I’m not going anywhere.”

—

Except, of course, that was a lie.

They both sensed it was coming, both understood the nature of the game and the way these situations worked out. That didn’t mean, however, that Aleks was prepared for Edin to go.

“Why Roma?” He asked, sounding more tentative than demanding. 

“Roma wants me,” came the stoic reply.

_So do I_ …

But what could he say? Nothing lasts forever, not languages or countries, and especially not football teams. 

“You could always come too.” Aleks’ brows furrowed into his customary scowl as Edin gave a small shrug. “It’s a thought.”

Thoughts of Rome, of Lazio came rushing back, and Aleks wondered if he could do that, really, if he could run back to Rome and wear red and gold. It’d be like joining United, he thought. It would be blasphemy.

Then again, everything they’d ever done was basically a sin. Besides winning the league, of course.

He shook his head. “You know that I can’t do that.”

His eyes met Edin’s again, and this time they looked even darker than Aleks’ own. Hurt. Broken. Sad. 

—

Rome in autumn was underrated. He’d always thought so, when he was younger and stupider, before he’d ever met Edin Džeko. There was just something about the slight shift in the weather and the sudden lack of tourists mulling around and clogging the entire city up that appealed. It was like once mid-September came around and the summer holidays were through, the locals came back out and the city became tolerable again.

“I never thought I’d be back here,” he said to Edin when he first pulled on the royal blue training kit. “Especially not here.”

“I knew you would,” Edin answered, grinning from ear to ear as they trotted onto the field.

Aleks slowed a little and watched as Edin ran off to greet their teammates, unable to resist the chance to nutmeg him as he ran ahead.

**Author's Note:**

> happy spring fling! i hope this doesn't disappoint you! [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH4E_t3m3xM) provided some inspiration while writing it. :3


End file.
